<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Introduction</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.63
"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="The Linux System Administrator's Guide"
HREF="index.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="Source and pre-formatted versions available"
HREF="f33.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="About This Book"
HREF="c56.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="CHAPTER"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>The Linux System Administrator's Guide: Version 0.7</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="f33.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="c56.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><H1
><A
NAME="AEN38"
>Chapter 1. Introduction</A
></H1
><A
NAME="AEN40"
></A
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE"
><P
><SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"In the beginning, the file was without
	form, and void; and emptiness was upon the face of the bits.
	And the Fingers of the Author moved upon the face of the
	keyboard.  And the Author said, Let there be words, and there
	were words."</SPAN
></P
></BLOCKQUOTE
><P
>The Linux System Administrator's Guide,
	describes the system administration aspects of using Linux.
	It is intended for people who know next to nothing about system
	administration (those saying ``what is it?''), but who have already
	mastered at least the basics of normal usage.  This manual
	doesn't tell you how to install Linux; that is described in the
	Installation and Getting Started document. See below for more
	information about Linux manuals.</P
><P
>System administration covers all the things that you have to
	do to keep a computer system in usable order.  It includes
	things like backing up files (and restoring them if necessary),
	installing new programs, creating accounts for users (and deleting
	them when no longer needed), making certain that the filesystem
	is not corrupted, and so on.  If a computer were, say, a house,
	system administration would be called maintenance, and would
	include cleaning, fixing broken windows, and other such things.
	</P
><P
>The structure of this manual is such that many of the
	chapters should be usable independently, so if you need information
	about backups, for example, you can read just that chapter. However,
	this manual is	first and foremost a tutorial and can be read
	sequentially or as a whole.</P
><P
>This manual is not intended to be used completely 
	independently. Plenty of the rest of the Linux documentation is also
	important for system administrators.  After all, a system
	administrator is just a user with special privileges and duties.
	Very useful resources are the manual pages, which should always be
	consulted when you are not familiar with a command.  If you do not
	know which command you need, then the <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>apropos</B
>
	command can be used.  Consult its manual page for more details.</P
><P
>While this manual is targeted at Linux, a general principle
	has been that it should be useful with other UNIX based operating
	systems as well.  Unfortunately, since there is so much variance
	between different versions of UNIX in general, and in system
	administration in particular, there is little hope to cover
	all variants.  Even covering all possibilities for Linux is
	difficult, due to the nature of its development.</P
><P
>There is no one official Linux distribution, so different
	people have different setups and many people have a setup they
	have built up themselves.  This book is not targeted at any
	one distribution.  Distributions can and do vary considerably.
	When possible, differences have been noted and alternatives
	given.</P
><P
>In trying to describe how things work, rather than just
	listing ``five easy steps'' for each task, there is much information
	here that is not necessary for everyone, but those parts are marked
	as such and can be skipped if you use a preconfigured system.
	Reading everything will, naturally, increase your understanding of
	the system and should make using and administering it more
	productive.
		
		<A
NAME="AEN51"
HREF="#FTN.AEN51"
>[1]</A
>
	</P
><P
>Like all other Linux related development, the work 
	to write this manual was done on a volunteer basis: I did it because
	I thought it might be fun and because I felt it should be done.
	However, like all volunteer work, there is a limit to how much time,
	knowledge and experience people have.  This means that the manual is
	not necessarily as good as it would be if a wizard had been paid
	handsomely to write it
	and had spent millennia to perfect it.  Be warned.</P
><P
>One particular point where corners have been cut is that 
	many things that are already well documented in other freely
	available manuals and so are mostly not covered here.  This applies
	especially to program specific documentation, such as all the
	details of using <B
CLASS="COMMAND"
>mkfs</B
>.  Only the purpose of the
	program and as much of its usage as is necessary for the purposes of
	this manual is described.  For further information, consult these
	other manuals.  Usually, all of the referred to documentation is
	part of the full Linux
	documentation set.</P
></DIV
><H3
CLASS="FOOTNOTES"
>Notes</H3
><TABLE
BORDER="0"
CLASS="FOOTNOTES"
WIDTH="100%"
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
WIDTH="5%"
><A
NAME="FTN.AEN51"
HREF="c38.html#AEN51"
>[1]</A
></TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
WIDTH="95%"
><P
>Understanding is the key to success with
		Linux.  This book could just provide recipes, but what
		would you do when confronted by a problem this book had
		no recipe for?  If the book can provide understanding
		then recipes are not required, they will be self evident
		</P
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="f33.html"
>Prev</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="index.html"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="c56.html"
>Next</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>Source and pre-formatted versions available</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>About This Book</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>